Is my wellness course eligible for the Express Course Directory?

Wellness is an eligible training topic when the course teaches work-specific skills that help employees do their jobs better and make Massachusetts businesses more efficient, productive, and successful. The primary application of what participants learn has to be at work, at the company receiving the grant funds.

Wellness courses aimed at an individual's personal well-being, and wellness courses delivered as coaching or as customized work for one business, are not eligible.

Three questions we ask when we review a wellness course submitted to the Express Course Directory:

1. Does the course teach job-specific skills that employees will apply at their workplace?

If yes, the course may be eligible. If the content is personal development, general well-being, or stress management for the participant's own benefit, it is not eligible.

2. Is the audience made up of W-2 employees at the grantee company who will use these skills with their own company's workforce?

If yes, the course may be eligible. Independent contractors, and consultants or coaches who serve outside client companies, are not eligible participants.

3. Does the course use the same curriculum for every business, with generic scenarios rather than business-specific ones?

If yes, the course may be eligible. A course built around each participant's own workplace situations, or heavily customized per business, is consulting rather than training.

Examples

Eligible

• Training wellness coordinators, employed as W-2 employees at eligible companies, in behavioral health coaching techniques using generic case scenarios.
• Training supervisors in stress management conversation skills through standardized role-plays.
• Teaching HR staff how to design and communicate an employee wellness program, using a fictional company as the working example.

Not eligible

• Mindfulness or resilience training for participants' personal stress reduction.
• Wellness coaching that works through participants' individual workplace challenges.
• Team-building built around one company's specific culture issues.
• Recurring or scheduled one-on-one sessions, regardless of how they are labeled. Coaching is not an eligible format for the Express Program.

Standardization of Content

If participants spend most of class time working on their own organization's issues and leave with a finished product for their employer, that is consulting and ineligible. If they practice a standardized framework on generic or fictional scenarios and apply it to their own workplace outside of class, that is training and could be eligible.

Costs

Express reimburses the cost of delivering training, meaning the instructor's time. Assessment instruments and their scoring fees, such as DISC or similar tools, along with certifications, materials, and food, are not reimbursable and must appear as separate line items on the invoice.

What to include in your course description

• The specific job functions of the W-2 employees the course is designed for, such as supervisors, HR generalists, or wellness coordinators.
• What participants will be able to do at work when they finish.
• A statement that the curriculum is standardized and that practice scenarios are generic or fictional.

Summary

Questions about a specific course? Email express@commcorp.org before you submit or submit a ticket through your provider account.